Blaster Break: 2024 Topps Update - inserts (Plus Justin Topa IG Link)

On Monday we covered base cards, today we are going to take a look at the inserts and noteworthy cards. 

Orioles

The blaster was a bit of an Oriole Hot Pack. out of 84 cards Eight were Orioles. We discussed the crummy Stars of MLB cards earlier this week and I am confusing the new Mystical cards with Stars - although they are slightly better. I prefer players wearing their teams uniforms for the ASG, but this year I did not mind the design that much. Regardless the Orioles have lots of young talent and are my favorite AL team, it was nice to get a bunch of them in one pack. 

Shohei Ohtani

I have no idea how many Ohtani cards are in Series 3 but picking up a trio in a blaster feels pretty strong. \

The bottom right card is from a new insert called "All Class". I don't get it, but if I am going to get one that is not a Phillies Player Ohtani is solid. The All Class insert falls at a rate of 1:32 for blasters.

The HR Record Card will go into my game dated binder. The Trout Shared card will go into the Versus collection (2 teams repped on one card)

Retro and Game Dated Cards

Couple of 1989 Retro-Selfies. Big Day in the Volpe Household when he gets to share a room with Willie Mays. Anthony Rizzo is destined for the Game Dated Binder. Ronel Blanco joins one of my favorite collections No-Hitter Cards! 

2024 Update Blaster Review

The Highs of the Blaster was getting a Paul Skenes Card (see Monday's Post), a couple of Ohtani's, a bunch of Orioles and I will also admit I kinda liked the Jack-O-Lanterns Insert. A number of singles will go towards special collections. 

Lows: No Justin Topa card which was #1 on my wish list, and only one Phillies Card. 

There are 2 cards I haven't covered yet one is the Phillies Card (which is a Low) and one is of a Hall of Famer - a high. 

So Mixed bag some fun inserts, but no Topa and a dud Phillie. 

Sources and Links

Topps

Twins Reliever Justin Topa Ripping Packs at Wheelhouse Cards

On Monday I mentioned I was looking for Justin Topa cards in my s3 Blaster. 

Why would I, a Phillies fan, care about a reliever that has never played for the Phillies?

Well the IG post below sort of explains why I was seeking a Justin Topa card in this box. 

Topa is an MLB reliever that is also a card collector. Last Friday HE WAS IN MY LOCAL CARD SHOP OPENING CARDS. I happened to be there that same day, but I was there prior to Topa - who I believe dropped in unannounced. The Cards in this blaster review were all picked up that day. 

Here is a link to the Instagram -> Justin Topa at Wheelhouse Cards

Justin Topa with his Card

Topa opened at least two boxes and in the IG post you get to see his reaction to getting his own first card. He also gets another pretty good hit as well.

Great to see Justin Topa is a card collector that also comes out and supports local card shops. 

Sources

Wheelhouse Cards. 

2015 Topps Update MegaBox Break

I let myself get suckered into picking up one of those 5+2 megaboxes of Updated/Chrome Update. Between the 7 packs I came up empty for Phillies - and really no former Phillies either :(

There are some minor highlights - pix below

Dallas Keuchel

Starting out with a couple of the Update cards. Keuchel is  the man who became the ace of the Astros. I am much happier with the shot selection for the 2015 All-Star cards. A year ago I think Topps was restricted to Practice Day photos, and there didn't appear to be enough selection.

Yoenis Cespedes

Before we spent the entire postseason hearing about Daniel Murphy, we spent the duration of the stretch run hearing about Yoenis Cespedes. The Cuban outfielder is a Free Agent and this may be one of the few cards issued of Cespedes as a Met.

Stephen Vogt

Another All-Star card, this is an interesting shot of A's catcher Stephen Vogt with I assume his child. The two of them are holding a placard for MLBs Stand Up 2 Cancer campaign.

Chrome

Joey Gallo
Francisco Lindor
Jason Heyward

These are this years special Chrome Cards. One advantage of photographing over scanning for these is you can capture the sparkles at a variety of angles. Three Pictures of the same card could have quite different results.

Eduardo Rodriguez
Delino DeShields
Eddie Butler

The filled in "Future Stars" tag, shown here on the Eddie Butler Card, looks a bit better on the Chrome Cards than on flagship - You can actually read the tag on the Chrome Card.

Inserts/Notables

Joe Ross
Craig Biggio
Dwight Gooden
Josh Donaldson

The Ross card is a parallel out of one of the base packs. Whatever Works for Craig Biggio is his dirty helment.

No-Hitter

The Bob Feller card above will likely get covered in a future No-Hitters posting.

Joey Butler
Danny Valencia

Gold Cards from flagship - both numbered to 2015.

Rookies

Jason Garcia/Scott Copeland

Apparently Dual RCs are in Update. I don't recall seeing these in the first 2 series of 2015T.

Joc Pederson

This is one of the Gold Versions of Chrome Update - numbered to /250.

Rookie Sensations Jose Abreu

I believe Rookie Sensations is the common insert for Chrome Update.

I pick up a couple of packs of Update each year, adding these few packs from the MegaBox along with the 8 ChroUp cards will probably conclude my new pack purchases for the year.

Sources and Links
Cardboard Connection

Blaster Break 2015 Topps Stadium Club

Some highlights from a recent Blaster purchase of 2015T Stadium Club. I think I may have picked up a single loosey as well, can't remember.

The Sole Phillie in the 40 card bounty was or retired centerfielder - convicted criminal Lenny Dykstra.

As with most Stadium Club cards we have a nice shot - full bleed. The TSC design is minimal - showing of the photo more, but unremarkable. Dykstra is bundled up here, wonder if this is from a road opener somewhere. I am a fan of the Liberty Bell flair whenever it shows up on Phillies attire on a card - you can see it here on Dykstra's turtleneck.

Blaster All-Stars

I like to post Breaks in the form of an all-star team of the cards drawn. Sometimes it is the best players, but often it is the most interesting photo or card design/shot combo

Battery

David Cone
Tim Hudson
Hisashi Iwakuma
Ivan Rodriguez

I think we were pitching light which is how Iwakuma got the nod, but the rest of these shots are great.  I may return to the Cone card as part of our Year of the No-Hitter Series. The Pudge card needs to rank among the best in the set - I want this shot on a Carlos Ruiz card.


Infield

Chipper Jones
Orlado Cepeda
Hanley Ramirez
Bip Roberts

I like the Ramirez card as it is a nice nod to both his changing teams and changing positions. It is a card that pays off on the viewers baseball knowledge. Note I moved Hanley back to Shortstop for this posting as the position was left vacant by our 40 card blaster.

Including a handful of Black n White hots is a nice touch in the set. The entirety of Orlando Cepeda's career was probably in the color photography era, but it is nice to see the B/W shot here.



 Outfield

Bo Jackson
Joe DiMaggio
Deion Sanders
Dusty Baker

Lots of stuff going on here, The Bo Jackson card gives us an interesting candid shot -
Something that is hard to capture. I typically dislike any shot from behind the player but the Deion Sanders card is ok, there is action and it is with one of the premier basestealers of the era. Dusty Baker is getting a lead from 2nd or 3rd, which you don't see on many cards - also it is hard to pick up but this is a Gold insert.

The Joe DiMaggio B/W is apparently noting his reach 45 games in his hit streak. At the time this tied Wee Willie Keeler for the major league record - this is another card I would like to return to at some point.


The Bench (Inserts)

Ken Griffey/Ken Griffey Jr
Contact Sheet Miguel Cabrera
Luminous Trumvirate Starling Marte

The Griffeys card is a fun one, will probably see this one a lot in the next year especially come Father's day. Here I have presented the base and Gold for side/side comparison.

The two bottom cards are inserts that I don't understand.

Sources and Links
Baseball-ref
Baseball Almanac
Ken Griffey Jr HoF Index
Orlando Cepeda HoF Index
Joe DiMaggio HoF Index
Ivan Rodriguez HoF Index

Box Break: Panini 2013 USA Baseball Champions

This is box #2 of the Team Phungo Annual Black Friday Binge of cheap stuff from Dave & Adams Card World.

2013 USA Baseball #34 Mike Schmidt

I have a minor collection of USA baseball cards. There is typically an interesting selection of players early in their careers. The set has been published by Panini, UD and Topps in different years and  each has flavored the set with different inserts.

Panini has done a good job of putting together a nice looking base set for 2013. The base cards includes several players that have MLB connections. Mike Schmidt above was a coach for Team USA in 2009.

2013 USA Baseball #34 Mike Schmidt

The flip side of the card doesn't really get into much detail regarding Schmidt's role with Team USA.

The handful of other subjects in the set with Phillies Connections include Pat Burrell, Terry Francona, and Davey Johnson. Hall of Famers on the checker include Ozzie Smith, Frank Robinson, Barry Larkin and Frank Thomas. There are also a handful of cards of players either awaiting the call or in HoF limbo including  Mussina, Chipper, Junior, Nomar, McGwire, and Clemens.


Highlights

2013 USA Baseball 2012 National Team Signature #54 Parker Kelly. 

The autograph hit for this box was the above card of Parker Kelly. There are a couple of baseball players with the name but I am pretty sure that this card is of this Parker Kelly. Apparently he has committed to play for University of Oregon in 2015, His brother is Carson Kelly who is in the Cardinals organization - a 2nd round pick in the 2012 draft.
 

There are several parallels of autos in this set, This is from the Red Series which is serialed to /49.

2013 USA Baseball #143 Carlos Rodon (#d/25) 

2013 USA Baseball #143 Carlos Rodon (b-side)

The autograph cards are variations on the 2012 National Team Subset Cards that run from #126-#187. In addition to the autographs there are a number of other parallel versions. Above we have the A and B-sides of Carlos Rodon. The Southpaw was the 3rd overall pick in the 2014 draft by the Chicago White Sox.

Panini 2013 USA Baseball Jersey 
#39 Adam Plutko
#59 Hunter Morris
#38 Colton Plaia

Each retail box contains 3 relic cards, didn't do a lot of research on these, Plutko is in the Indians organization.

Pride Insert Cards
#21 Mark McGwire
#14 Michael Choice
#5 Gerrit Cole
#19 Chipper Jones

I am guessing these are the vanilla version of a card design that is used for patches and/or relics. I find the card to be attractive, however the 25 card checklist (numbered to 26, skipping 23) is just large enough to be larger than I would want to build. For me personally another drawback to the insert set is a lack of Phillies cards. 

I close the pix portion of this post with additional parallels cards from the National Teams Series portion of the checker. a couple of the above cards are serial numbered. The first two cards on the bottom row are advertisements.


The Vitals
1 Retail Box of 2013 USA Baseball Champions $13

Base 117/123 (95%)
Duplicates - more than 2 dozen

Yes, a single 24x7 (168 cards) box of cards failed to yield a complete 123 card base set.

Want List - 6
#20 Ben McDonald
#58 Robert Refsnyder
#62 Austin Maddox
#77 Blake Swihart
#100 Bubba Starling
#107 N/A
#113 Nolan Fontana
#124 N/A

Hits
Autograph - Parker Kelly
3 Relics - #38 Plaia, #39 Plutko, #58 Hunter Morris

Sources & Links
Phungo Mike Schmdit HoF Index

Cardboard Connection
Perfect Game

Season Premiere Box Break: 2013 Press Pass Parks and Recreation

To mark the debut of the final season of Parks and Rec on Tuesday, tonight we are posting a few highlights of a box break of Press Pass Parks n Rec. 

I picked up a single Hobby Box of P&R for $37. It was one of the better boxes as far as hits are concerned.

We lead this post with an Amy Poehler card which is from a subset of 10 of the shows stars. Yes Subset not insert set. What a novel idea.

The Box

Parks n Rec is a fun break because of the actors/comedians involved. Several prominent folks including Poehler, Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Scott, and Rob Lowe.


Base



2013 Press Pass Parks and Recreation #9 Beauty Pageant

The bulk of the base set features cards dedicated to individual episodes. This Season 2 Ep 3 card is of the show entitled "Beauty Pageant". The card design is drawn from the shows opening credits. The plus here is that this allows for a lot of thumbnail pix on a card. The minus is that the pix are thumbnails. The shots are all tiny and dark.

The flip side of each card has an episode summary. A bit of a disappointment the summary mentions Officer Dave, who was played by Phungo favorite Louis CK. Unfortunately I don't think Louis shows up on any of the cards.

There are a couple of Subset and insert cards. Here we have the Rob Lowe card - most of these cards show the actors as the actors rather than in character.

 

There are a handful of insert cards that fans of the show will enjoy. The above 2 cards are for Ron Swanson's alter ego Duke Silver and Andy's one time band Mouse Rat. 

Hits

 

I have only seen her in a handful of flicks but I have become a big fan of Aubrey Plaza. Picking up this auto was a big highlight of the box. This is the blue #d 99 version.

One again we return to Ron Swanson with this base level auto from Nick Offerman.

Our final hit is the above 3x Relic of Lesilie Knope/Amy Poehler. This is a nice relic with the three swatches representing different parts of Knope's outfit.

The Vitals
The box contained the entire 90 card base set as well as a dozen+ parallels. We were fortunate to do very well on our hits, but I think any hits within the set would be interesting.

Press Pass
Just want to note here that Parks and Recreation is one of several entertainment card sets produced by Press Pass, which sadly announced last week that they would cease operations.

Sources and Links
Cardboard Connection
Dave and Adams Card World

Box Break 2014 Topps US Olympic & Paralympic

I picked up a variety of items as part of the Dave and Adams Cyber Monday promo. I am leading off with a look at a non-baseball Hobby Box.

I watched a good bit of the 2014 Olympics coverage. In addition to the competition, I was also interested in the events because of the venue. Mrs Phungo has been to Russia a number of times. One of her trips there took her to Sochi, site of the 2014 Olympics.

When I saw Topps would be producing an Olympic set, I figured I would look into a set when the price was right.  That time came on Cyber Momday.

Box Break

2014 Topps US Olympics #84 Katie Uhlaender

For our base card we take a look at the #84 card of Kaite Uhlaender who we discussed back in February.  Uhlaender just missed getting a Medal, finishing 4th in the Skeleton.

The cards are nice looking, There is a flag behind ice motif going on, rather than a frame the bottom of the card is separated by a mountain range which serves as a backdrop for text of the athletes name and event. The US Olympic logo appears in the bottom right.

The picture themselves vary mostly casual pix like the one of Uhlaender above, but there are also action and head shots. 

2014 Topps US Olympics #48 LoLo Jones

Prior to the 2014 Olympics we knew Lolo Jones as a Hurdler in the Summer Olympics. This year we were re-introduced to her in the Bobsled event. Her card above is a silver parallel - this is signified by a "Medal" in the lower right. I have paired Jones' card with it's b-side which contains a few biographical tid bits. In a nice bit of continuity the design on the b-sde echoes the mountains from the bottome of the a-side.

2014 Topps US Olympics #85 Danelle Umstead

Paralympians are also featured in the 2014 Topps Olypic set. The visually impaired Danelle Umstead won a Bronze medal at the 2014 Paralympic Winter games. According to her Team USA bio Umstead's Guide since 2008 has been her husband Rob. The Topps card doesn't specify if the man featured in the above photo is Rob.

2014 Topps US Olympics #85 Lindsey Vonn 

For our example of a bronze card we present an Olympian most sports fans are familiar with, Lindsey Vonn. Vonn failed to Medal this year but did take home a Gold in 2010.

2014 Topps US Olympics #3 Eddy Alvarez

Eduardo Alvarez is another athlete we features in February. After the Olympics concluded Alvarez followed in his brothers footsteps and returned to playing baseball. Eddy put together an impressive debut batting .346 with 5 homers across 2 levels in the low minors. Alvarez is in the White Sox organization and will be an interesting prospect to follow in the next couple of seasons. 

2014 Topps US Olympic Relic #OR-DW David Wise

I got a picked up a bit of a David Wise hot-pack. The Box Relic was a Wise as was one of the four Gold Medal Cards. The Medal Card is appropriate as Wise took home the 2014 Gold in the Half-Pipe.

The Vaguey Lawyerese on the back of the relic is as follows: 

The Manupatch

2014 Topps US Olympic Sochi Patch Free-Skiing Patrick Deneen

It's a manupatch but I like it. The pix featurs Patrick Deneen doing a flip, which through me off a bit. I thought Topps had put the swatch in upside down. Took me a second, but I figured out the orientation eventually.

The Hit

2014 Topps US Olympics #68 Noelle Pikus-Pace

Oops buried this a bit. Each Box contains one auto "on average". We had the good fortune to pick up an auto of Noelle Pikus-Pace.

Yeah I didn't know her either. She took home the Silver in the 2014 Skeleton. This is the same event in which Katie Uhlaender at the top of our post just missed medalling.

There were a few other insert cards, but I have elected to not present them here.

The Vitals

1 Hobby Box of 2014 US Olympic and Paralympic Team and Hopeful Trading Cards $24



Complete 100 card base set
24 Bronze Parallels
8 Silver
4 Gold - All parallels fell at expected odds.

Inserts
3 Games of the XXII Olympiad (Bobsled - Steven Holcomb, Skeleton - John Daly, Ski Jumping -Lindsey Van)
2 2014 Olympic Game Venues (Sanki, Rosa Khutor)
1 Olympic Heritage (1980 - Lake Placid)

Hits
1 Autograph Noelle Pikus-Price (Skeleton)
1 Athlete-Worn Memorabilia - David Wise (Freeskiing)
1 Offiicial Commemorative Patch - Patrick Deneen (Freestyle Skiing)

35 Duplicates

190 cards total

Sources & Links
Cardboard Connection
Sports Ref
Team USA

Bucket or Chuck-it: 2014 Topps Chrome Blaster Break

I picked up a blaster of 2014T Chrome a couple of weeks ago, immediate remorse. $20 for 32 cards that I have basically already seen.

Highlights

2014 Tops Chrome #174 Chase Utley


I got one Phillies card which is the average in a 30 card break and it was a good one, so I can't complain. Bummed to see Chase occupying a lowly common number here but other than that very happy to pick up this card.

I didn't have this card from flagship so I hadn't really taken a close look at it prior - I am going to dedicate an entire posting to this card at some point in the future, but For now I will just reiterate that I am really glad it is now in the Phungo Collection.

 2014 Topps Chrome #10 Masahiro Tanaka (rc)

My first 2014 Tanaka card. An obvious +1 for this blaster, nice to get one of the key 2014 rookies.  I also have it on the Phungo agenda to discuss Mr Tanaka's cards in a future post. Who knows if we will get to it.


*Fractors

2014 Topps Chrome #3 Enny Romero (rc -Refractor)

2014 Topps Chrome #67 Wilmer Flores (rc - refractor)
2014 Topps Chrome #122 Shin-Soo Choo (refractor)

Presenting Mr Flores with his base card and power play parallel. Shin-Soo Choo was in 2014 Topps earlier this year as a member of his former team.  

Refractor b-Sides

The Refractors specify "Refractor" in the bottom right corner (above the Topps Logo). I think they have only done this the last couple of years, but they don't bother distinguishing between the vanilla refractors, rainbows, or x-fractors - Romero is an x-fractor while the other two are the commons.
 
Purple

2014 Topps Chrome #166 Hunter Pence (refractor purple)
2014 Topps Chrome #53 Chase Headley (refractor purple)  
2014 Topps Chrome #62 Zach Walters (rc-refractor purple)  
2014 Topps Chrome #123 Jose Bautista (refractor purple)

Blasters include 4-pack of parallels. Pence and a Rookie Card, highlight the "bonus" pack.

2014 Topps Chrome Connections #CC-RC Robinson Cano

Here we have whatever these are - these puzzle piece cards seem more suited for opening day. I can see a lot of dealers wanting to figure out ways to put these cards together.

Flip

2014 Topps Chrome Connections #CC-RC Robinson Cano (b-side)


The Chrome Connections card runs off and makes a comparison to Junior. For those of you who are interested Ken Griffey Jr WAR through age 31 season was 78.0. Robinson Cano 51.5

Rookies

 

2014 Topps Chrome #91 Christian Bethancourt (rc)

2014 Topps Chrome #127 Tanner Roark (rc)

2014 Topps Chrome #107 Hyn-Jin Ryu (rookie cup)

2014 Topps Chrome #191 CJ Cron (rc)

As usual Chromes late season release date allows for a good mix of rookies. The Ryu isn't a RC but I included it here for the Rookie Cup. 

Bucket or Chuck-It

After opening a blaster of Topps Chrome, I was reminded why I am a flagship collector. $20 for 32 cards is just out of my league - For me Chrome is a Chuck-It, A Blaster is more than I really am interested in, one of those 3 packs with a "Bonus" pack of parallels is probably more my speed.

There is an argument for chrome, the cards are nice and sturdy. the shiny works over the white borders. The checker for Chrome may also be better. Chrome gleans the top talent and rookies which are probably the most interesting subjects from the collects S1 and S2 sets


Sources & Links
Chase Utley Player Collection Index
Cardboard Connection
baseball-ref